Anthrophobia: a pathological fear of people or human companionship.
The isolation created by mandated social distancing due to COVID-19 is causing mental and emotional fears of human contact. It’s seen constantly when people are in public places, and can be witnessed by the expressions on faces when another person gets within their personal space.
In some places there are those, quick to reprimand people or report them for not taking precautionary measures, wearing masks, gloves, and adequate distancing.
This condition is something I’ve seen in a select few who’ve undergone abuse in their lives. It tends to initiate health concerns, affecting adrenal health as well as immune strength.
It’s a proven fact that babies who fail to receive close affectionate attention fail to thrive. Human touch is critical to our health. When I see forced social distancing it makes me think of the movie where the FedEx pilot (Tom Hanks) was stranded on a deserted island without human interaction. His volleyball was his only supposed contact with humanity. We need more than a Wilson to be complete human beings.
Although we’ve become a digital generation, where we socialize on electronic media more than in person, there’s that important component of face to face companionship which is critical for personality development. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, medicine has been directed more toward phone and video conferencing for non-vital evaluation and treatment.
Digital patient visits not covered by insurance in the past are now being encouraged as insurance codes have been created to accommodate this mode of contact. Unfortunately this could edge out the personal one on one care adhered to all these years. Convenience is one thing this allows, especially for those patients who have to travel long distances to see their doctor. For me, this is very helpful as I serve patients far and wide.
The main drawback here, is not being able to rely on all my senses when seeing patients. This is something I rely on even though I’m not actively trying to do it. When I evaluate patients, all my senses are all in operation. Not just listening, but it’s critical I see, smell, and physically touch the patient and use the instruments of my trade like the heart sound recorder to get a full evaluation of my patient’s health and how to improve it. The laying on of hands has it’s place in my office.
Living in the digital age has it’s benefits for sure, but in many ways I’m old school when it comes to caring for my patients. I anticipate seeing my patients as they become a very special part of my life. Yesterday one of my closest friends and occasional patient went on to be with the Lord. Every time I hear of this, I feel one of my family members have left my life.
So, do we throw the baby out with the bath water, or embrace what it is? Hopefully this quarantine will soon be over and we can get back to life in a more realistic manner. Can we take the good with the bad? In the case of digital medicine, I will embrace the ability to continue to care for my patients in whatever capacity I can. With the new electronic methods of video conferencing I’m looking forward to being able to reach out to my patient in South Africa, Those living in Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, and many other spots around the world. Until they can be present here in my office with me, I’ll settle for what I can get.
In the meantime, those of us with strong immune systems shouldn’t be cloistered away not being able to congregate. With the truth of COVID-19 mortality rate being somewhere around 0.2%, we’ve been scared into hiding from what’s no more deadly than influenza. This being the case, are we going to shut down the country every time there’s an influenza outbreak? Protecting the vulnerable during an outbreak is a wise move, but not allowing our intact immune system to develop it’s defenses against these viruses, relying on unproven and unsafe vaccines is Russian Roulette.
From a personal standpoint, with what I’ve observed over the last 40 years of being a doctor, I don’t trust these vaccines and feel safer being exposed to the condition instead of the shot. Again, this is my personal opinion. We all need to make the personal choice which fits our beliefs.
The isolation created by mandated social distancing due to COVID-19 is causing mental and emotional fears of human contact. It’s seen constantly when people are in public places, and can be witnessed by the expressions on faces when another person gets within their personal space.
In some places there are those, quick to reprimand people or report them for not taking precautionary measures, wearing masks, gloves, and adequate distancing.
This condition is something I’ve seen in a select few who’ve undergone abuse in their lives. It tends to initiate health concerns, affecting adrenal health as well as immune strength.
It’s a proven fact that babies who fail to receive close affectionate attention fail to thrive. Human touch is critical to our health. When I see forced social distancing it makes me think of the movie where the FedEx pilot (Tom Hanks) was stranded on a deserted island without human interaction. His volleyball was his only supposed contact with humanity. We need more than a Wilson to be complete human beings.
Although we’ve become a digital generation, where we socialize on electronic media more than in person, there’s that important component of face to face companionship which is critical for personality development. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, medicine has been directed more toward phone and video conferencing for non-vital evaluation and treatment.
Digital patient visits not covered by insurance in the past are now being encouraged as insurance codes have been created to accommodate this mode of contact. Unfortunately this could edge out the personal one on one care adhered to all these years. Convenience is one thing this allows, especially for those patients who have to travel long distances to see their doctor. For me, this is very helpful as I serve patients far and wide.
The main drawback here, is not being able to rely on all my senses when seeing patients. This is something I rely on even though I’m not actively trying to do it. When I evaluate patients, all my senses are all in operation. Not just listening, but it’s critical I see, smell, and physically touch the patient and use the instruments of my trade like the heart sound recorder to get a full evaluation of my patient’s health and how to improve it. The laying on of hands has it’s place in my office.
Living in the digital age has it’s benefits for sure, but in many ways I’m old school when it comes to caring for my patients. I anticipate seeing my patients as they become a very special part of my life. Yesterday one of my closest friends and occasional patient went on to be with the Lord. Every time I hear of this, I feel one of my family members have left my life.
So, do we throw the baby out with the bath water, or embrace what it is? Hopefully this quarantine will soon be over and we can get back to life in a more realistic manner. Can we take the good with the bad? In the case of digital medicine, I will embrace the ability to continue to care for my patients in whatever capacity I can. With the new electronic methods of video conferencing I’m looking forward to being able to reach out to my patient in South Africa, Those living in Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, and many other spots around the world. Until they can be present here in my office with me, I’ll settle for what I can get.
In the meantime, those of us with strong immune systems shouldn’t be cloistered away not being able to congregate. With the truth of COVID-19 mortality rate being somewhere around 0.2%, we’ve been scared into hiding from what’s no more deadly than influenza. This being the case, are we going to shut down the country every time there’s an influenza outbreak? Protecting the vulnerable during an outbreak is a wise move, but not allowing our intact immune system to develop it’s defenses against these viruses, relying on unproven and unsafe vaccines is Russian Roulette.
From a personal standpoint, with what I’ve observed over the last 40 years of being a doctor, I don’t trust these vaccines and feel safer being exposed to the condition instead of the shot. Again, this is my personal opinion. We all need to make the personal choice which fits our beliefs.
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